Speaking about the Past to the Present for a Better Future SPRING 2018 VOLUME XXXIX No. 1 of the Chattahoochee Valley Historical Society and Cobb Memorial Archives This Place Chambers County: Trails, Roads and Other Physical Attributes The Spring General Membership trees and the woods. No one ever to the family farm property in 1998. meeting of the Chattahoochee boasted of how much wealth they He retired from twenty-five years of Valley Historical Society will accumulated at the end of the year but employment with the South Carolina occur on Sunday, April 15, 2018, showed pride in how well they had State Board for Technical and at 3:00 p. m. EDT in The Lanier built, maintained the farm and grown Comprehensive Education where for Room, H. Grady Bradshaw the plants and animals appropriate to the prior eighteen years he served as Library in Valley, Alabama. the land in their era while struggling the Associate Executive Director for The general public is invited to to survive the vagaries of decades of Instruction. experience a presentation on the economic change, weather and bugs. history Chambers County. These ancestors did not perceive the Dr. Horace (Mac) McLean Holderfield, land nor their labor as commodities. Vice President for Editing The Voice, They possessed many self-sufficiency in a power point program will present skills which contributed to their sense historical maps and other visuals of self-worth and independence. I which portray the physical history absorbed my ancestors’ attachment of the area which became Chambers to the earth of my birth place on County. His presentation will show Stroud Creek in Chambers County maps, including maps from the and a motivation to understand the University of Alabama collection, land’s physical elements as well as the identifying Indian trails, Indian societies of the people who lived here,” names of creeks and villages, and later states Mac. settlers’ roads. He will also present In the pre-electronic past, rural images showing the rural locations farm families spent much time of homes and buildings from the sharing stories across generations first aerial photographs taken by inhabiting a household. Among Dr. the Federal Government for use by Holderfield’s families, an oral tradition the US Department of Agriculture of storytelling about the olden times in the 1930’s. The content of Mac’s was maintained. His curiosity about presentation may be helpful for his families’ historical experiences persons studying rural family history stimulated his interest in local history and wanting to develop a sense of from childhood and led to two degrees house location for family ancestors in history from Auburn University and and neighbors. a year, as a Fulbright Fellow, studying New Alabama, 1824, Pub. by A. Finley, “I was born into farm families Medieval History in Germany. He Philad. composed of many elderly relatives then taught history for six years before who were the last non-mechanized seeking further farmers in Chambers County, education. As a Alabama and Heard County, Georgia. Kellogg Fellow, The Chattahoochee Valley Dr. Holderfield The farm land was treasured, almost Historical Society Quarterly Meeting worshiped by these people. The fields earned a PH. D. had names as simple as the Gray from Florida State Sunday, April 15, 2018, 3:00 p. m. EDT Field where Indians had lived or as University in Higher Education. The Lanier Room, H. Grady Bradshaw Library disturbing as the Devil’s Half Acre. Valley Alabama Stories were told about the animals, He and his wife branches and creeks and about the Linda returned THE VOICE – SPRING 2018 1 FEATURED RESEARCH Cedric — From Jugtown to Ghost Town By CVHS Member Charlie Powers, M.A. History Adjunct Instructor Point University and University of West Georgia How many people even know that articulate works of pottery than War). The brothers also married the Chambers County, Alabama, has its most other conventional methods. Lawrence sisters from Chambers own “Ghost town”? If one were to look This method used Alkaline clay and County, furthering social and up the communities on the county’s different burning methods to produce economic ties to the area. website, you will notice one listed in a permanent sheen that was usually In order to better understand the black as “inactive”. This community olive green in color (though burnt development of Cedric, it is crucial was Cedric, though there is very little wood ash could be applied for various to understand the upbringing and physical evidence of its existence left other colors). This secretive technique worldview of the Rushton brothers. today – at least above ground. Cedric’s originated in Imperial China Both came from a relatively affluent location and history, however, are (discretely reaching Europe by the 17th family in Edgefield, SC (though certainly more significant than many century). Prior to 1830, very few places certainly not the wealthiest of their people realize. in the United States produced this type day). The Rushtons were slave owners, Cedric was one of many small (but of pottery (one of which was Edgefield, though the number of slaves they flourishing) “jug towns” located SC). owned was likely to have been very primarily in the southern part of The potters of Edgefield were eager to small. With the exception of Hickory Randolph County as early as the 1830s. migrate west (as many Americans were Flat, the other “jug towns” in this area There were many communities (mostly in those days) and seek out a location were mostly founded by slave owners. in Randolph County) with adequate Hickory Flat’s founder, a lawyer named that thrived here clay deposits Cecil Demosthenes Hudson, was a producing valuable necessary for prominent opponent of slavery (and (and rare) pottery of large-scale pottery later a “Unionist” during the war). the highest quality in production. With Prior to the Civil War, it is unknown East Alabama. Cedric the advent of the as to whether or not there was any was one of the earliest Creek War of conflict between the Rushtons and of these “jug towns”, the 1830s, many Cecil D. Hudson over the slavery but its longevity was of these families issues. challenged by the packed up and The Rushtons were educated, and Civil War and the headed to East the unique naming of their new subsequent relocation Central Alabama. community reflects a very interesting of the next generation This particular Created at Cedric Jugtown stamped J. insight into their literacy and of its founding family. R., Joseph Rushton. A Double Handle location in education. The name “Cedric” was By 1907, when the Bean Pot, mega Rare ca.1830-1850. Alabama (the not actually used (at least not in this new railroad passed Photo by Gary Price Randolph / form) until the publication of English through its former Chambers author Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe location, Cedric had officially gone line) was not just coincidental, but in 1820. Scott’s three-volume work from being a “jug town” to a “ghost rather crucial to large-scale pottery focuses on an aristocratic family of t o w n”. production. Located on the “fall line”, Anglo-Saxon descent (at a time when Cedric, Alabama was officially this area produced large deposits of England’s nobility were dominated settled by two brothers, Bennett J. (primarily) red and alkaline white by Normans of French origin). The and Joseph Rushton. The Rushton clay. Furthermore, the old “Settlement head of this family was an older, brothers, like most other “Potter’s Road” passed right through the heart cool-headed patriarch named Cedric. families” in the area, originated in of this area. This road is no longer Scott purposefully “misspelled” the Edgefield, South Carolina before featured on maps created after the original Saxon name “Cerdic” for “Alabama Fever” and Indian Removal Civil War, but in the 1830s it was well- various reasons. In any case, Scott’s drew them to Alabama. All of these traversed (and vital for commerce as spelling of the name was not widely families specialized in a form of there were no railroads). While Rock known outside of the reading public pottery that was far more valuable Mills and Bacon Level are considered of Britain and the United States in the in the Southeastern United States the oldest of these “jug towns” to be 1830s, so it is a unique choice of name of the early 19th century: stone- settled, it is very possible that Cedric for a “jug town” founded by settlers burned pottery. Stone-burned pottery was settled by the Rushton brothers as in East Alabama. According to Gary produced shinier, more aesthetically early as 1834 (before the final Creek Price, a local historian and expert on 2 THE VOICE – SPRING 2018 so in 1852, leaving the future of Cedric in the hands of Joseph Rushton Sr. and his family. For the remainder of the 1850s, however, Cedric continued to thrive as it had before. All of this relative prosperity was eventually challenged by the American Civil War. Pre-existing political and ideological differences between pro-Confederate potters’ families like the Rushton brothers and “Unionists” like Cecil D. Hudson came to the forefront. The Rushton brothers were avid supporters of the Confederacy and devoted much of their financial and material resources to supporting the war effort. This put a heavy strain on the prosperity of Cedric, though pottery was still being produced and sold commercially during this time. During Reconstruction, however, the “jug Grave stone of Joseph Rushton with shards from his operations at Cedric. Shards contain towns” suffered an even bigger blow. distinctive elements which assist the researcher in identifying the creators of unstamped Almost all railroads in the South items.